John Pawson: Themes and Projects

Phaidon. First edition 2002. 128pp

John Pawson (b.1949) is the foremost proponent of a minimal aesthetic in architecture and design. Already known to designers for his ascetic yet luxurious interiors, he has attained public acclaim for his high-profile retail projects such as the Calvin Klein flagship store in New York, his celebrity clients like Martha Stewart and his book Minimum. 

This book looks at the spatial themes that dominate Pawson's work, through a close examination of a range of different projects. It explores how light, mass and structure inform the architecture and the role of ritual and order, as well as the integration of internal and external spaces. 

Six new projects are featured: products for 'When Objects Work', Calvin Klein Paris, Vacheron Constantin in Geneva, the Marketmuseum in the UK, a private house in Germany and the Novy Dvur monastery in the Czech Republic. Essays by Deyan Sudjic, Sam Hecht, Michael Craig-Martin, Phoebe Greenwood, Robert Winder, Kate Bucknell, Bruce Chatwin and Father Samuel describe the effects of these spaces. 

Like John Pawson Works, this compilation is a record of Pawson's developing approach to design and his unique position at the meeting point of art and design, through which his ethos offers incisive insights into culture, society and architecture.